#OpenGovTech
#OpenGovTech is our next adventure. We want to create tools and resources (and help others do the same) that contribute to improving government through the use of open methods - open innovation, open source. 'GovTech' has been gathering pace in recent years and has already seen improvements brought to governments across the world. We believe that #OpenGovTech is the next logical step - taking everything that makes GovTech great and then doing it all in the open. Why? openness encourages engagement from all angles - the technologist who can suggest better methods, the citizen who needs to access services from a mobile, the community groups or charities that work with the most vulnerable in society who need to know that their needs are being met.
We don't want to own the definition of #OpenGovTech. We want to involve people from a variety of backgrounds and interests to help us shape what #OpenGovTech can and should be, who should be involved, and how we do it. In our typical 'radically open' approach, everything we do will be available online and open to contributions and feedback. We encourage anyone who wants to take part in #OpenGovTech to do the same - make it open, make it better.
#OpenGovTech launch event
4 September 2019
Part of Wuthering Bytes festival in Hebden Bridge. Ended.#OpenGovTech Google Doc
An accessible Google Doc that contains notes, resources, etc, and is open for additions.
Current tools/resources
CSV Cleaner
A tool to help clean up common issues in CSV files.
CSV2GeoJSON
A web-based tool to convert CSV containing geography into GeoJSON files.
Business Rates
A data visualisation plus data standards and file checkers to help LA's get their data right.
Postcodes2IMD
A batch converter to turn postcodes into IMD
Postcodes2Lat/Long
Add latitude/longitude to CSV files that already contain postcodes.
UK Hex Maps
A way to visualise data that removes geographic bias on standard maps.
Blog posts
Your #OpenGovTech Stories
Want to get involved with #OpenGovTech? You can start by sharing your work and stories.
#OpenGovTech
Our founder Paul Connell reflects on what #OpenGovTech could be.
Business Rates
A summary of the work involved, and the collaboration needed, to make the business rates project a success.
Adding geography to your CSV files
A tehnical post about the new geography CSV tools.
The Open Data Collaboration Working group
The Open Data Collaboration Working group was created to encourage collaboration between the sponsors regarding open data. These discussions have regularly included WYCA, Leeds City Council, Calderdale Council, and Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council but is open to all of our sponsors. In recent meetings, we have also welcomed local authorities and other public-facing organisations from outside of the sponsor group, including Stockport Council and Barnsley Council.
The collaborative group work on shared challenges with the aim of developing scalable solutions that could be adopted by others, bringing instant benefits. A clear example of this is the work with business rates data. Business rates are frequently requested as part of FOI and all local authorities publish them, but not neessarily to the same standard and not always in a useful format. The collaborative group worked together to establish a data standard for business rates, developing additional useful tools in parallel to make the process even smoother. As the work progressed, other local authorities came on-board, applying the new standard to their own data so that it might be included in the Business Rates Explorer tool.
Partners
The partners in #OpenGovTech have all shown their enthusiasm and optimism for creating open tools and resources that can improve government systems and processes. They understand the benefits of operating openly - they can meet their committments for transparency whilst being open to innovative improvements with valuable insight from the people they serve.
